Friday, May 13, 2016

Girl in Restroom Attacked by Man — Was He a Woman?

Reese M. Hartstirn, 33, has been arrested for assaulting an 8-year-old girl who was alone in the public restroom of Jason's Deli in Chicago's South Loop. News reports identify Hartstirn's gender as male, but a savvy defense attorney will likely advise the accused to say that Hartstirn self-identified as a woman at the time of entry into the restroom.

A man choked an 8-year-old girl until she passed out inside the bathroom of a South Loop store last weekend, according to Chicago Police.

She was with her mother at the business in the 1200 block of South Canal when the girl went to the bathroom alone about 1:15 p.m. on May 7, according to Chicago Police.

The woman then heard a scream from her daughter and went inside to find 33-year-old Reese M. Hartstirn carrying the unconscious girl into a stall, police said. He had choked her with his hands, police allege.

The girl went into the store’s bathroom. At some point, Reese M. Hartstirn, 33, came into the bathroom and started choking the girl with his hands, causing her to become unconscious, according to a release from the Chicago Police Department.

He then picked up the unconscious girl and carried her into a bathroom stall, closing the door so she couldn’t leave, according to the release. Hartstirn pushed the girl’s mother when she came into the stall to rescue her daughter, police said.

Hartstirn, of the 500 block of North Racine Avenue, was charged with a felony count of aggravated kidnapping and a felony count of aggravated battery to a child under 13, according to the release.

Cook County Judge Adam Bourgeois ordered Hartstirn held without bail Monday, according to court records. He is scheduled to appear in court May 16.